mizarchivist

She's back and very skittish now. I went out with some compost, so gave her a handfull of strawberry tops for when she goes back. Maybe the babies were under the fuzz the whole time? I hope. We were convinced she was gone, so I put all jungle of other planters back- maybe she was spooked when her micro-environment changed all of a sudden. We'll see.

If this continues, I'll be tempted to get the Must Be Bunnies icon, which feels a bit late in the game, but rather apropos.

ETA (again)-- maybe just back for an herby snack, as no really- no babies. I guess I'll have to wait until the family smorgasbord outing happens in the oregano.

*headdesk*
I hit the wrong button and lost my entry halfway through. This will be a very short version:
- I helped missdimple  move yesterday. I'm very glad I did- it went smoothly considering, but today is a 2 cup of coffee day what with the expected results of box-hauling. The second cup actually is helping so I don't necessarily have to hide in my office all day.
- I have a new composter, and it is awesome! I had hoped for an R2-D2 shaped one, like my neighbors have, but instead it's much more dalek shaped.  On further reflection, I believe the one I originally referred to as R2 shaped can be interpreted just as easily as dalek. If anyone has a better match for the square one I do have, I'm happy to entertain nicknames.
- Movies recently watched: Slumdog Millionaire, Up in the Air. Both left me with a bit of a "...huh" feeling, but both reasonably well done.
- Movie to see soon: zomg-IRONMAN!... just sayin'. Scarlet Johansson.
- Lexington was rather ghost-townish on Saturday since all the food-selling establishments, including ice cream parlors and movie theaters, were ordered to close. I expected zombies or tumbling tumbleweeds in the mostly abandoned parking lots. Aside from being thwarted from my ice cream fix, this water thing is a non-thing on the scale of bothersome things. Not so much for 80% of the gym-goers today. shrug. Don't know. Don't care.

Right. I have videos to make for work. Did I mention that the upgraded software and my computer are not getting on well and my computer will show its displeasure with a solid blue motif after a while? Yeah, not a good thing. Fingers crossed.

My garden is quite amazing. I've been a bad plant parent to this current season and not documenting with pictures hardly at all. So not surprised. If ever I have 2 kids, there probably won't be any pictures of the second. OK, maybe not. But it feels like that ;)  I'm waiting for the broccoli to start showing signs of florets, though. Hmph! But the beans are totally nuts and climbing anything that stands still long enough to get caught in their tendrils (eee!)- They've got flowers now in parts, so edibles to arrive sooner than later. My Topsy Turvey (TM) is now out along with the homemade one- a drywall mud bucket with holes in the bottom - well, the plant is getting scary big. The "official" one was just planted on Saturday outside so it hasn't taken off. What I found so cool was that it almost immediately started to grow towards the sun. Plants are bendy!  Oh, and the red leaf lettuce has loved this rain so much. And there are too many bunnies in my neighborhood. Every time I see one near my garden I yell in a grumpy mom voice, but in the exasperated I still love you way.

lifecollage  invited me over for dinner last night, which was as excellent as I expected. Holy crap, is their veggie farm share huuge. I don't think I could handle that much all in one week. Especially since I don't have a chest freezer like she does (I totally would if our *&^%$ house's electricity in the basement could withstand the juice it would require. Trust me. It can't.) I need to see if I can recount a conversation we had about interacting with those who've survived a geek childhood and have the scars to prove it- the bit in question was about why it can be so damn hard to get proactive conversations/actions from these very lovely people. Anyway- I know I'm not up to the task of the recounting and pondering at this point, but I want to so this is the bookmark for later.

I got home in time to watch week 2 of Dancing. I think last week was a bit stronger (the whole first week adrenaline), but I'm ever so pleased to see choreographers back, particularly Shane Sparks. Yay, the dancing!

So, I'm going to Wisconsin for work in a week and a few days. For one reason and another, I need to get a pedicure before I return home, and I managed to find a relatively close salon and got the appointment. I love the interwebs! Thank you Google Maps. I'm fixated on trying a gothy French manicure style: black with white tips. How very Druscilla, eh? 

This weekend's plans are going to be awesome, I think. If all goes according to plan, I'll have sushi with quiet_elegance  on Friday. Until I started going to Teppenyaki with him and sitting at the sushi bar, I thought their fare was pretty ho-hum. Now I love it. But really, it's all about spending time with q_e- getting out of the usal distractions of being in the house. /schmoop. And Saturday is going to be non-stop. As always: diner for breakfast with purple_terror  with the requisite snark given and taken from our favorite waitress, Grammy. Then the long anticipated pool party. Looking at the weather makes me a bit sad, though, as it looks to be a bit chilly and almost certainly damp. Meh. I depend on the finer weather to keep me in what is otherwise a seething horde of humanity. Dinna want to be stuck inside! Let's hope things change because I want to see the spinning. And I want to see weegoddess  and everyone else, but especially our Actual Size redhead. The end of the evening will be at the charity screening of Serenity at Coolidge Corner: Can't Stop the Serenity- all proceeds go to Equality Now. They're starting the screening this year with Dr. Horrible, so bonus. Since it's a midnight screening, I suspect I'll be doing a whole lot of nothing on
Sunday.

ETA:
Oh! And I almost forgot that I have to thank jasra  (again) for pointing me towards greasemonkey for Firefox and facebook purity. I had been spending a lot of time being irritated with otherwise lovely people who kept spamming me with their effing quiz results and application crap. So. Don't. Care. That add-on blocks all that. Thank you, internet gods for this! I'm clearly not the only one spending more time on FB (and probably Twitter, which I still only stalk via RSS) because when once not that long ago I'd have to page back quite a bit to catch up after being gone for many hours/ a day, I sort of don't have to, however I really do with FB. Well, hey. FB for the mini posts, LJ for the more thoughtful commentary. I hope!

So, let's see.
Friday- there was mostly just wandering around. There was also a lovely flurry of phone calls and texts- thanks! We did a fair bit of hipster-spotting and sat in Central Park a bit before returning to Brooklyn for a rest before evening festivities. Dinner at Morimoto was as excellent as you might expect. I'll let purple_terror  do the write up, though. It certainly ranks up there with best meals ever. It also took 2 1/2 hours to experience, so there was no post meal entertainment.

Saturday- bummed around, made breakfast with my host, Joe.  We both went out around the same time, bought almost precisely the same ingredients (down to size of egg and brand of cream cheese), and returned at the same time to a bit of amused bafflement. Joe thought perhaps I'd have to take home a lot of this food, as there was just so much of it. Not a real concern, though. Aunt Leslie and Uncle Giles were also in residence, plus p_t, YT, and the other half of the hosting, Susan.
That afternoon, my relations from upstate NY arrived and it was quite jolly. My cousin, Katherine, has been accepted to Yale but she never thought she'd get in and had her heart set on an obscure liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere. I appreciate she needs to get to her own decision, but seriously! Yale!! The end of this week will see the end of the suspense.
Dinner was at Madras Cafe, by The Bowery. It's a vegan Indian restaurant (kosher, too?) - I highly recommend. We'd been there before and it's Leslie's favorite. She says it's just like eating in India. She goes there rather frequently, so she'd know.
Giles's show -did sets and lights- was pretty good. Obscure Gilbert and Sullivan: Ruddigore. If you've heard any G&S you know what it sounded like and for that matter about how the plot wound. The performers had excellent voices. The downside was it was an echo-chamber of a church basement, so sitting at the back was a challenge.

Sunday- Mostly just packing up, then off to the innards of Brooklyn to meet yet other cousins who'd moved to the city not that long ago. All 3 are my dad's older sister's kids. Pretty sure we'd not seen each other in about 11 years. We now have the goal of meeting up again soon and not because of a funeral. The return trip via a Chinatown bus:  rather torturous with no AC and it was well above 90 when we left. Also the double pane of glass I was sitting next to was filthy from condensation and about half a gallon of trapped water sloshed the whole way. Bolt next time anyone? Oh yes.
Gardening! ( Today's gardening activities )

So, yesterday, I had bean sprouts. Hadn't really even broken out of the ground as such- just peeking. I wasn't home last night until late, so didn't check on any of them. Well! The beans are now over an inch tall. I'm entirely flabbergasted. I have about a dozen plants and may well need to find a home or two, as that's a lot of beans. Mom says they're the best, though.
My tomatoes have also started to come up and I know there's way too many of those, too. Wow! I actually can grow things from seeds- I was not convinced of this until this week, really.

Ok, also- zomg, skating tonight! Eeeeee!

It's about time to start prepping the garden barrels again! I was thrilled to see that the chives grew back on their own. Good thing, as I killed them in the house. And the creeping thyme has survived/suffered in the same way. Some new buds on the chocolate mint, too (none came in -so that was an extra bonus). For the stuff brought in, both rosemary and parsley made it.
I still have a monster aloe if anyone wants to take it off my hands. It's looking quite healthy these days.

I have a LOT of Cinnamon Basil. Anybody want some?
Anybody have a notion as to what particularly it'd go with? I'm thinking it'll not be pesto.

ETA: Also, Black Crim tomatoes- do they ever have any red? There's over half a dozen on the plant now and none of them are showing signs of red, so I've been leaving them alone.
ETA2: Further, I have a LOT of thyme. Would it were time. If anyone is in need of this herb, I have much to spare.

ETA3: I'll be going to Diesel this week, so that's a good place to trade off.

So, the roots on my bee balm were not strong enough to hold up against the storms. They were quite leggy and I don't think their root structure was ever extensive enough to deal with being 3 million feet tall. I have been cutting away at them for a while, hoping if I trim them back they'd fare better. Not after yesterday. Also, the onion bloom finally bent in the middle of its stalk, so I pulled it up. The bees had been having fun with it, so I left it alone until my hand was forced.

This one was taken 8 days ago. I didn't get a chance to get evidence this morning beyond how far the morning glory grew
( lots of pictures )
The question is: what should I put in where the bee balm lived? I have 3/4 of a planter!
Link to Garden Gallery.

So, in late April, I started off with the growing of things. It looked sort of like this:and now...
The lettuce goes RAWR. And that thing that is in the middle of it all that's -oh 3 feet tall: that's the onion. A blooming onion. Neat or what?! That really really tall stuff that's almost as tall as the onion is the bee balm that featured in the first picture in this post.

quiet_elegance came home with 3 rose bushes and a bunch of mulch yesterday. I didn't get a chance to take pictures, but they're also without blooms, so not dramatic- yet. They stand about 1.5 ft.- between  their height and the mulch, I trust our black-thumbed landlord and his weed wacker will not decimate the beauties. I'm very entertained, indeed I am. While he was planting, I was reminded that I married a farmer. "You've done this a few times, haven't you."
"Once or twice"
Next addition of our new addiction? A trellis, I think. And then another barrel for more herbs. In established plant news that nobody but me probably cares about, the bee balm is twice as tall as it was when I bought it and it has new growth- little behbeh runners peeking up 'round the edges. Methinks the rose in the middle of that barrel will be transplanted before the end of the season to keep it from getting strangled. And catness will be giving me tomatoes in a few weeks!!! I will probably need help consuming some of those once it's that part of the season- OK? Again with my wonder that I'm now a gardener. What's next- genealogy?!